Bucket Filler

I got this email from coach Mike Boyle. Here it is printed as he sent it.

Be a Bucket Filler

I want to be very clear, I did not write this, I am only sharing.
The concept actually comes from a book I read to my son.

You have heard of the cup that overflowed. This is a story of a
bucket that is like the cup, only larger, it is an invisible bucket.

Everyone has one.

It determines how we feel about ourselves, about others, and how
we get along with people. Have you ever experienced a series of
very favorable things which made you want to be good to people
for a week? At that time, your bucket was full.

A bucket can be filled by a lot of things that happen. When a
person speaks to you, recognizing you as a human being, your
bucket is filled a little. Even more if he calls you by name,
especially if it is the name you like to be called.

If he compliments you on your dress or on a job well done, the
level in your bucket goes up still higher. There must be a million
ways to raise the level in another’s bucket. Writing a friendly
letter, remembering something that is special to the other person,
knowing the names of their children, expressing sympathy for their
loss, giving them a hand when there work is heavy, taking time for
conversation, or, perhaps more important, listening to them.

When one’s bucket is full of this emotional support, one can express
warmth and friendliness to people.

But, remember, this is a theory about a bucket and a dipper. Other
people have dippers and they can get their dippers in your bucket.

This, too, can be done in a million ways. Think of the times a person
makes a mistake, feels terrible about it, only to have someone tell
him about the mistake (the “Red pencil” mentality!)

Buckets are filled and buckets are emptied ? Buckets are emptied
many times because people don’t really think about what they are
doing.

When a person’s bucket is emptied, he is very different than when
it is full.

You say to a person whose bucket is empty, “That is a pretty tie
you have,” and he may reply in a very irritated, defensive manner.

Although there is a limit to such an analogy, there are people who
seem to have holes in their buckets.

When a person has a hole in his bucket, he irritates lots of people
by trying to get his dipper in their buckets. This is when he really n
eeds somebody to pour it in his bucket because he keeps losing.

The story of our lives is the interplay of the bucket and the dipper.
Everyone has both. The unyielding secret of the bucket and the dipper
is that when you fill another’s bucket it does not take anything out
of your own bucket.
The level in our own bucket gets higher when we fill another’s, and,
on the other hand, when we dip into another’s bucket we do not fill
our own … we lose a little.

For a variety of reasons, people hesitate filling the bucket of
another and consequently do not experience the fun, joy, happiness,
fulfillment, and satisfaction connected with making another person
happy.

Some reasons for this hesitancy are that people think it sounds
“fakey,” or the other person will be suspicious of the motive, or
it is “brown-nosing.”

Therefore, let us put aside our dipper and resolve to touch someone’s
life in order to fill their bucket.


To your success,

Mike Boyle


Read Matt 7:12 and Luke 6:31 and start filling buckets.